The most sacred of our rights is that of free speech so Mark Todd, the great Olympian and horseman, sat tall in the saddle this week by announcing he would use the Beijing Games this year to peacefully protest against China's "abhorrent" actions in Tibet.

Thank goodness for Todd _ trying to win Olympic selection and then a third gold medal _ whose stance is contrary to the Olympic movement's attempts to squash political protests by athletes.

His words should be tinder-dry logs that stoke the fires in all of us. Foremost among the concerns is a Chinese ban on foreign journalists covering the "unrest" in Tibet.

China is a notorious abuser of human rights and the Tibet issue is not the only one that athletes might voice concerns over.

Todd was a youth of the 1960s and 70s, when protest was a rite of passage. Whether the target was a foreign power or our own men (they were usually men back then) in power, it was mandatory to vent a youthful spleen at least once in the nation's streets, partly as a sign of maturing thought.

This at least served to give society's conscience a poke now and then.

The closest the youth of today will come to pushing any Chinese buttons is on their mobile phones so it is left to a veteran Olympian to lead the way in reminding us of our rights and obligations.

And while we may not be able to fix everything or anything in Tibet, nor even understand it fully, we can _ at the very least _ look after what should be held sacred in our own patch and hope that it has some small influence for change.

Nothing in sport should over-ride the right to free speech. Nothing.

Why on earth should we acquiesce for the sake of a Chinese Government which has little or no respect for many values that we hold dear.

There are causes far greater than the pursuit of sporting gold or bank vault silver and the day we leave those issues to men in suits and tall buildings is the day we take a shabby lift to the basement of decent behaviour.

"I am totally against violence of any sort," Todd said with a simple sincerity that should make our Olympic leaders cringe at their attempts at suppression.

An ostentatious Olympic movement is apparently happy to glory in the athletes' oath which commits to the spirit of sportsmanship, even if it is delivered while the spirit of life is being bludgeoned in nearby streets.